office on time, I used to work from nine in the morning until eight or nine at
night, and often until midnight. Drinking with colleagues after work is part of
the job; you can’t say no. the company building contained cafeterias, shops,
a bank, a post office, a doctor’s office, barbers… I never needed to leave
the building. Working, drinking, sleeping, and standing on a horribly
crowded commuter train for an hour and a half each way: this was my life. I
spent all my time with the same colleagues; when I wasn’t involved in
entertaining clients on the weekend, I was expected to play golf with my
colleagues. I soon lost sight of the world outside the company.
This isolation is part of their brainwashing process.
5
a personnel
manager said: “we want excellent students who are active, clever and
tough. Three months is enough to train them to be devoted businessmen.”
I would hear my colleagues saying: I’m not making any profit for the
company, so I`m not contributing. “Very few employees claim all the
overtime pay due to them. Keeping an employee costs the company 50
million yen ($400,000) a year, or so the company claims. many employees
put the company’s profits before their own mental and physical well-being.
Overtiredness and overwork leave you little energy to analyze or criticize
your situation. There are shops full of “health drinks”, cocktails of caffeine
and other drugs, which will keep you going even when you`re exhausted.
Karoshi (death from overwork) is increasingly common and is always being
discussed in the newspapers. I myself collapsed from working too hard. my
boss told me: “you should control your health; it`s your own fault if you get
sick.” There is no paid sick leave;
6
I used up half of my fourteen days
annual leave
7,
because of sickness.
We had a labor union, but it seemed to have an odd relationship with
the management. A couple of times a year I was told to go home at five
o’clock. The union representatives were coming around to investigate
working hours; everyone knew in advance. if it was “discovered” that we